Critical apparatus
The
critical apparatus is the critical and primary source material that accompanies an edition of a text. A critical apparatus is often a by-product of textual criticism. Many editions employ a standard format for a critical apparatus, as illustrated by a line from
Hamlet, which the Oxford
Complete Works prints as follows: LAERTES. Alas, then is she drowned. The apparatus for the line might be rendered as: 4.7.156 Alas, then is she drowned.]
HIBBARD; Alas then, is she drown'd?
F; Alas then is she drownd.
Q3; Alas, then, she is drownd.
Q2; So, she is drownde:
Q1. The format of the apparatus has several parts: ▪ The location of the variant in the text ▪ The
lemma, which is the portion of the text to which the note applies ▪ A right bracket ▪ The source from which the edition took its reading ▪ A list of variants, in each case followed by the source in which the variant is found, and set off with a semicolon. To save space, frequently cited sources are usually assigned an abbreviation called a
siglum.